"With ten nominations, the Academy obviously loves "True Grit" and she stands to be one of the
best shots at a win for that movie," says Entertainment Weekly's Dave Karger.

Karger also sees the Best Actress race tightening with momentum building for Annette Bening of "The Kids Are All Right" and possibly slowing for "Black Swan"'s Natalie Portman.

Best Picture's also been largely seen as a two film race: Golden Globe winner "The Social Network" against "The King's Speech" with its 12 Oscar nominations.

Still, Karger sees dark horses emerging.

"'The Fighter', with its seven nominations, is a film you can't count out," he says, "and 'True Grit' getting ten, it just shows that it's a little more of a tight race than people might have thought."